Monday, August 31, 2009

Comic Moments That Make You Go "Ouch!"

Yes, I know that comic books aren't real. Those punches through walls and into outer space never actually happen, but still there are those comic book moments that make you cringe because you know that's gotta hurt! Here are a few that I think made for a bad day for those involved:

Bane "breaks" Batman

In the midst of the powerful "Knightfall" storyline, we have our first moment. Through the evil machinations of Bane, all of Batman's major foes are set free from Arkham and he has to gather them all again. With no rest and one fight after another, Batman is worn down by the time Bane shows up for the beat down.

As he finishes this first encounter, Bane picks up the Caped Crusader and slams him across his knee. With a sickening "KRAKT", Batman's back breaks and Bane leaves him crippled (temporarily).

You have to admit, that's one bad moment in Batman's life. Just looking at that panely you can tell it HURTS! It was a level of brutality Batman had never been subject to before, and it was a major turning point in the storyline for years to come. Even though Batman's replacement (Azrael) faced Bane and beat him down a few issues later, Bruce never faced Bane for a rematch until much later.

Magneto takes Wolverine's Adamantium

Wolverine and Magneto had fought before, and Magneto had used Wolvie's metal skeleton to throw him around a bit here and there. Nothing could prepare comic readers for just how brutal Magneto could be in the right circumstances. Having had enough of the X-Men's meddling, Magneto chooses to pull the adamantium off Logan's skeleton--through the pores in his skin!

Take a moment to glance at your arm. See those hairs? Now imagine adamantium oozing through each one and every spot in between. Just look at that picture and you see the pain on Logan's face. It's obvious this is worse than anything he's had before and hurts me just looking at it.

Fortunately, quick thinking by Jean Grey kept him alive long enough to get him to the mansion and get the rest of the adamantium out of him. The cool little plot twist from this storyline was the revelation that Logan's claws were bone covered in adamantium, and not the metal itself as we'd been led to believe over the years. He eventually got it all back again (thanks to Apocolypse) and carried to true hatred for Magneto from that point on.

In the recent Ultimatum storyline, Magneto killed Wolverine--but not before Wolvie stabbed him through with his claws...while missing half his face. A very grusome ending to this bitter fued.

Captain America stops Baron Blood

Captain America 253 and 254 forever hold a special place in my heart. Those two issues introduced the new incarnation of Union Jack (one of my favorite heroes) drawn by John Byrne (one of my favorite artists). However, one of the big jaw-droppers for me was what happened at the end of the two-part tale.

Cap and Union Jack are attempting to take down Baron Blood as the sun is setting. Though they've fought hard, time is running out and Blood is getting stronger while our heroes are weakening. In the heat of the battle, Captain America is forced to make a hard decision that changed this character forever for me. Using his shield as a Ginsu, Cap slams it down and takes Blood's head...the only way to kill a vampire (according to the story). Cap had never purposefully killed any of his villains before, so the moment had a bit impact for me.

What got me here was the look on Cap's face as it dawned on him what he would have to do. It really pained him to make this decision, whereas today it would have been the first thing most of the heroes would have done.

Another thing to mention was how this occured: off panel. There was no graphic scene of the head flying off with blood spurting everywhere or anything like it...and yet we are easily able to tell what took place. If this had been drawn today there would have been a splash panel of Blood's head flying away trailing blood as Cap looked on with a smile on his face. It would have robbed the story of its impact.

Well, those are three moments I thought looked like they hurt. What about you? Any from the older days of comics that stayed with you over the years?

7 comments:

Ew! Ugh! Blah! *cringe* *cringe* *cringe* That batman one really got me. Im still cringing. Ouch! The way The Flash dies in the CRISIS ON INFINATE EARTHS story line looked painful. You could see his face decay. Nasty. And I remember some speedster killed someone by running so fast the person's skin was ripped off. I looked around on the internet but couldn't find it. Either way that had to be painful.

One that springs to mind that I've never had the pleasure of reading in its entirety was the Miracleman #15 rape scene. I remember reading an excerpt from the scene in Wizard years ago, my impressionable young mind was affected by the horror and pain of it for years. If ever a scene was written that was so brutal it made you cheer for the sadistic and psychotic antagonist, that would be it.

The Emperor Joker arc was pretty brutal, especially the scene with Batman being eaten by birds as Superman narrates. You really feel for both characters, and the aftermath of the whole ordeal that left Batman finally broken amplified that pain.

Recently there was the Tornado's Path arc of JLA that had a humanized Red Tornado see his hand ripped off and devoured by Solomon Grundy. That made me cringe a little (although it was tempered by the obvious "wouldn't this be shocking?" aesthetic of it all).